Pure chaos. There’s no other way to describe the maelstrom that ensued the moment our two sides clashed. The biggest and most obvious challenge is that, with me as the sole exception, not one of us can see further than our outstretched hand. A limitation that, for some reason, does not apply to the other side.

From within these thick clouds, we’re being assailed from at least two different directions. From one come bolts of star-shaped energy that hit way harder than they have any right to. I managed to mostly dodge one of those blasts, but even the glancing blow nearly dislocated my shoulder and sent me tumbling toward the ground. I’m able to recollect myself in midair and reorient myself with a spinning backflip, but the split second I’m out of the fight gives them that much more ground to work with and us that much less.

The other ranged attacker in their midst is somehow even worse. Arrows coated in strange magic are loosed with alarming speed, and anything they hit gets pelted with electricity of all things. And whenever these arrows land on a target, that attack is then immediately followed by a second burst of electrical energy raining down from the sky.

My [Archangel’s Gaze] helps me dodge the attacks aimed at me, and my bond with Chloe helps me help her dodge them as well. But Jasmine and Alana are having a rough go of it, and Anna is standing like a deer in the headlights. The one piece of good news is that they don’t seem to be interested in fighting Anna, but they are focusing on Jasmine, who’s probably the next weakest among us.

The attacks are already brutal, and it’s made that much worse when Red jumps into the fray. The knight is incredibly fast, and like the archer that I still can’t accurately perceive, she attacks with bursts of red lightning that are nearly impossible to parry. I fire an [Ether Bullet Barrage] at them, only to find that once again, my projectiles are completely rebuffed. The wind itself is being controlled by one of their members somehow, and in a way that ensures my attacks all fail to do more than superficial damage to my target.

Alana is having no better luck fighting against the black-haired ninja. The ninja is the shortest and smallest of the four by a considerable margin, but might just be the deadliest. Her attacks, like all of the others, deal more lightning damage, as though they were tailor-made to fight me specifically. But this dark lightning has a nasty effect that none of the others’ attacks share— instead of attacking our [Health], the ninja’s attacks inflict damage to our [Ether] pool, weakening our minds and concentration with every strike. I still don’t know what will happen if we hit 0 [Ether], but I know it’s nothing good.

For now, though, all we can do is form a defensive perimeter and hope— somehow— that our attackers will run out of stamina before we do.

Unfortunately, we have yet another problem in trying to attack this group. The green knight is slow and lumbering in comparison to their teammates. But they are a very proficient barrier mage, and have the ability to manipulate their barriers in offensive ways as well as defensive ones. Swords and other weapons made of pure green energy are one thing. But this crazed fighter also creates spheres of green energy and attempts to ensnare us within them, only to turn around and try to crush us to a bloody pulp.

Alana is barely strong enough to crack these barriers before she gets crushed, and I can counter them with equal force. But again, the trouble of dealing with numbers rears its ugly head, and we keep getting pushed back, the battle so intense that I can do little more than fire off the occasional one- or two-glyph rudimentary spells. Fire and lightning are slightly more effective here, not being blown off course the way my [Ether Bulltes] are

Worst of all, Anna, previously standing motionless as the battle rages all around her, now is cowering in the fetal position, her hands clenching her ears as she cries for help. Damn it all, but I guess it can’t be helped. She doesn’t have the experience of fighting for her life, nor any sort of training to prepare her for this outcome. This better not be some sort of ruse to get us to mentally count her out of the fight. Or if so, that it’s not directed against us.

“A little help?” Chloe cries out through our bond. She’s not faring well at all, trying to both keep us healed up while batting back the attacks of the ninja, who seems laser-focused on her in particular for some strange reason.

I rush in to intercept, diving out of the way just in time to deflect the fearsome katana from cleaving right through Chloe’s spirit. I, however, fare less well, taking a glancing blow on the back of my right wing, then a small jolt of lightning to my left calf. Between the two hits, I sustain nearly five hundred damage to my [Ether], which for some goddesses-forsaken reason, also can’t be shielded against with [Saintess’s Cloister].

Damn it all! It’s like this team of fighters is tailor-made to counter our own. They have the ability to obscure our vision, attack through our shields, more ranged attacks than we have, better agility and [Speed], and the ability to completely nullify all of our ranged projectiles. Well… Hopefully they can’t also fly. It’s an extremely dim hope, but it’s better than sitting out here like a bunch of sitting ducks!

“Alana, Jasmine!” I cry out. “Take Anna, and get to the skies! It might be our only chance!”

“But what about that damned lightning?” Jasmine asks.

“Better that we suffer a few bolts now and get somewhere where we can recover and regroup than get whittled down bit by bit down here!” I say.

“It’s a good idea,” Alana says. “But we need to hurry.”

Alana grabs Anna while Chloe and I deflect strikes from the two swordfighters on the opposing side. Once everyone is accounted for, we leap to the air, dodging and sometimes sustaining strikes in the process. Thankfully, these bolts don’t have the same properties as that ninja’s weapons, and are absorbed by the power of the [Cloister] Chloe cast on each of us.

The cloud of dust only reaches about a hundred feet above the ground, meaning it only takes a couple of seconds before we’re out of the haze and back to the clear air above. Further above us, the light of the impending dawn is growing brighter. Stars are beginning to fade as the blackness above brightens to blue and violet and even a twinge of green near the horizon.

Right now, we’re all alive, thanks to Chloe’s magic. But I know that won’t last. Her spells have gained proficiency— subtly different from Skills gaining ranks— which in turn has decreased their casting cost and improved their efficacy. But the base costs of all her Skill-derived spells— specifically [Saintess’s Cloister] and [Saintess’s Blessing]— are too high, and having to recast the latter multiple times has eaten at her. She can remain airborne for a while longer, but we will be worn down well before this cloud of dust abates.

Dust… Dust… It might not be possible to drench these clouds, but perhaps they can be dispersed somehow. The winds seemed to obey the will of the person who walked within them, but perhaps that control is only so great. If it can be overcome, perhaps I can blast the entire cloud out. I doubt it’d last for more than a few seconds, but we can do a lot of damage in the span of a few seconds.

[Wind] is an interesting glyph, and other than [Darkness], the element I’m the least familiar with despite it being involved in my first trial attempt at [Glyphcasting], the one that gave me the Skill in the first place. It’s far more sprawling than [Fire] or [Water]. In that regard, it’s not dissimilar from [Lightning]. However, while [Lightning] is full of jagged, pointy edges, [Wind] is smooth, flowing, and easygoing.

I’d like to combine it with [Gravity] and a few others to create a flattening downburst that might crush the ruffians underfoot, but doing so would tax me too heavily. We are still within the Tower, and I need to conserve my strength for later floors. For the same reason, I need to make sure I don’t use [Seraphina Overlimit] unless one of us is going to die imminently— losing massive amounts of Experience, being incapacitated for an hour, and losing the failsafe for an entire week are each problematic. Together, they are debilitating.

Instead, I go with three simpler glyphs. My ever trusty [Repulsion], [Expansion] to widen the area of effect, and, [Straightness] to counteract the tendency of the air to expand outward radially. It takes several seconds to slot in all the dozens of linking runes I need to properly create the spell array.

And it seems that our enemies have gotten wise to the mass of energy building in my arms. The attacks, which had relented for a couple of seconds, now resume with relentless ferocity, concussive bursts leading the way. The red knight shoots up with a jump that sends them overtop of us. From there, they launch burst after burst of electrical energy. The ninja follows suit a moment later, and while they don’t quite reach those impressive heights, the lightning they flare out of their body in all directions is impossible to fully evade.

By some miracle, my [[Ether] Strain Immunity] Skill continues to do work, allowing me to maintain my focus even as I feel my connection to my magic and Skills distend slightly. Just what is this strange magic that this diminutive warrior wields? And how can they cast it consecutively without some sort of diminishing returns? There’s gotta be something. Some weakness to exploit. Nothing is without them. Because even if I am able to disperse this cloud of dust and fog obscuring our vision, it will only equalize the battle, not win it outright.

Alana, having tossed Anna to Jasmine while I was focused on building the glyph array, flies in front of me, launching a weaker version of her [Featherstorm] toward the two aerial enemies. And this time, outside of the range of the dust cloud and that strange wind that diverted our projectiles, her attack finds purchase… Except not. Because not only do these fighters have insanely powerful techniques, but both of them have some sort of barrier that protects them from injury.

Although, no… This barrier is finite. I see it in the ninja’s facial expression— they each can’t take too many blows directly to this barrier. I suspect if it shatters, they will be vulnerable. Far more so than we are. The tradeoff of using this shield, rather than their [Vitality], as their last line of defense.

My glyph array is finally ready. My head is sore from the strain of Manifesting the array, but it’s not a deep, throbbing pain, nor a vicious migraine. Just the fatigue of a long day and the lethargy of mental exhaustion. But Chloe and everyone else are counting on me to see this through. I launch the spell.

The force is imminent. Dust sprays out in every direction, and as the cool, crisp air from above rushes down upon the town outskirts, the cloud of dust and debris that previously covered the battlefield is ripped away. The bits of vegetation that were unfortunate enough to be caught in the impact have their leaves and spines torn from their branches and their entire forms flattened. And in the center of the mass, previously obscured from my vision, there’s a tiny girl who can’t possibly be older than Chloe and I.

She looks up at me with mournful eyes and draws her bow. In another time and place, we might have been cordial acquaintances, maybe even friends. But right now, we have to push on. I will not fail this trial. I will overcome, so that if this happens in the outside world, I will be able to prevent such a travesty from happening, one where real lives will be at stake.